The second comeback of the electric vehicle (EV) in little more than a decade has a much greater likelihood of success and will have a transformative effect on driving habits as well as the automotive and electric power industries, Boulder, Colo.-based Pike Research. Automakers are planning to produce hundreds of thousands of vehicles per year that plug in starting in 2012. By 2015, Pike Research forecasts that more than one million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and EVs will be sold annually around the world, and during that year, more than three million EVs sold to date will be plugging in to recharge their batteries.
The majority of electric vehicle service equipment (EVSE) will be networked and managed via information technology (IT) and communications systems that aggregate power demand and enable a coordinated response to changing grid conditions, according to a new report from Pike Research, IT systems are necessary because, while during the early part of the decade, EVs will not immediately impact utilities’ ability to keep up with aggregated demand, the impact on distribution assets that deliver power to customers could be immediate in some areas. A variety of companies will be active in the EV IT sector including automakers, EVSE vendors, smart grid integration providers, energy services companies, systems integrators, and utilities themselves.
The report, “Electric Vehicle Information Technology Systems,” provides a comprehensive examination of the information and communications systems for EV enablement within the utility grid infrastructure. It includes forecasts through 2015 for investment in EV information and communication technology in world regions, along with profiles of key industry players.
The report also addresses key questions:
- How will vehicle charging information be collected and how will it be shared?
- What roles are EVSE manufacturers, smart grid companies, and energy aggregation companies likely to play in EV management?
- What communications technologies are likely to lead in EV information management?
- How much will be invested in IT systems for managing vehicle charging?
- Why is it necessary for utilities to manage EV charging, and how will they control the added demand on the grid?
